Category: Death Metal History

Early PENTAGRAM demos are fucking killer, and the first was recorded during this month in 1987 at Nacofon studios.

I don’t remember how much it cost us, but it was a really cheap recording. The drummer had worked at that studio (Nacofon) before so he took us there. When we finished we were really happy with the sound, but looking back to it now it’s pretty obvious that we were a bit overexcited.
We never really sold the first demo, because, naive as we were, we wanted to use it to get a record deal. But it started spreading throughout the international underground, and started getting us loads of interest from people all over the world. I was heavily into tape trading at that time, and it amazes me now how far those recordings got known.
– Anton Reisenegger / Pentagram interview, Voices from the Darkside

Some of you will have ordered the self-titled compilation CD from us in the distant past, released by Picoroco Records sometime around 2000. Since then their notoriety has only grown, they’ve played across Europe and released their debut album The Malefice in 2013.

ARCHGOAT finished recording their only major release before the mid-2000s reformation on this day in 1993. Recording began on Monday, the day before, and the EP was mixed on the 6th at Music Box Studio. Paul Thind was forming Necropolis Records around this time and would release Angelcunt as a 12″ MLP later in the year.

The Angelcunt material was reused for the split CD with BEHERIT

Necropolis wanted us to do a split with Beherit with new material, but since their hypocritical behaviour started to show, we did not give them the studio tape of 7 unreleased songs in ’93, so they just used Angelcunt.

Recorded at Dan Swanö’s Gorysound (later Unisound) studio on this day in 1992. It was one of the last Gorysound recordings. Other Gorysound demo bands that year included KATATONIA, MANIFEST, INTERMENT, FULMINATION, OBSCURE INFINITY and OPHTHALAMIA.

Released by R/C (Roadrunner) on this day in 1989, the second PESTILENCE LP!

What do you think of hardcore bands?
I love them. They are, and now from the music and show part far more aggressive. I listen alot to hardcore bands like CRUMBSUCKERS, AGNOSTIC FRONT, D.R.I. etc..
What’s your influences?
Well that’s not difficult I think SLAYER, DEATH, POSSESSED & INFERNAL MAJESTY (only a bit the last one).
– Pestilence interview, Decibel of Death zine 1987

This was the first time NIHILIST recorded at Tomas Skogsberg’s Sunlight Studio; one of the first to record at Sunlight at all. They followed TREBLINKA (Crawling in Vomits, November ’88) and MORBID (Last Supper, September ’88).

Recording began on 8 December and Only Shreds Remain was completed on this day in 1988.

With their new lineup and improved material, Nihilist easily blew away their contemporaries and delivered what can be seen as probably the first 100 percent pure Swedish death metal recording. The precise riffing, the ghastly growls of Petrov – very unlike the screams delivered on the debut – and Andersson’s drumming are all just incredible. This demo is also the first to feature the special ultra-thick Studio Sunlight guitar sound that would later become the trademark of Swedish death metal.
– from Swedish Death Metal by Daniel Ekeroth

We used Sunlight only because Morbid had been there. But I was not pleased with the studio. I think the production on our second demo sucks. The drums, especially, sound awful. Skogsberg didn’t know much about how to take care of death metal back then. The reason we got the great guitar sound was the Leif moved on to guitar, and came up with that fat sound. At that point, we didn’t know how he did it – but we loved it!
– Nicke Andersson

For that recording, we hardly had any time at all. You had to pay for each hour in the studio, and we didn’t have any money. And back then you didn’t rehearse much before a recording, so it was pretty stressful.
– Johnny Hedlund

We started in a cold dingy shed jamming and all I ever dreamed then was to have a song on a demo and that dream came to fruition, so off to Pulse Studios we went to record what we call the ‘Burden’ demo.
Our first time recording was fantastic with Mr. A Averill and Adrian who later became our bassist. We hadn’t a clue, but that experience and receiving the DAT tape of our first recording, I remember saying to myself, I’ve made it to the top. But it was only our first step…
– Frank Brennan / Mourning Beloveth interview 2012

Recorded in Pulse Studios on 24 May 1996, MOURNING BELOVETH released their first demo tape on this day in 1996.
Engineered by Adrian Butler with Alan Averill and Kevin Byrne.

Killer Chilean, Lovecraftian death metal; ATOMIC AGGRESSOR released their last demo on this day in 1991.

Resurrection was the second demo. Bloody Ceremonial was released in 1989 and the only other material was a rehearsal tape in ’90.

Great raw sound influenced by MORBID ANGEL, POSSESSED…!

It was the last we heard from them (although I do remember bringing over some copies of the Bloody Resurrection compilation CD in early 2000’s) until their reformation in 2007. AA released their debut album Sights of Suffering in 2014.